Overexposed Rock

    It was early 2000. It was a cold (by South Texas standards) day with high's in the high 40's. As a way to help pass the time, I was listening to the radio (set on the local rock station) in my bedroom when I heard Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down playing for the first time. I thought "This is a cool song". My enthusiasm continued when I heard that song repeated two hours later. After hearing the same song for the fourth time in a row, my opinion about Kryptonite started to change rapidly.

"OK, this is a cool song, but don't you think you're playing it just a tad bit too much.....OK you're going to play it again aren't you."

    By the end of the month, I hated Kryptonite, along with 3 Doors Down. I was overexposed to the song so much that my brain programmed itself to revolt whenever it started to play. I never wanted to hear Kryptonite again. The overexposure killed whatever potential enthusiasm that I had for 3 Doors Down as a group. Unfortunate as that song was their first hit, and it already tanked my liking of the band before I heard any of their other music. 

    The process repeated with songs like Creed's With Arms Wide Open and STP's Sour Girl. Both were songs that when I heard them initially, I really liked them. Yet both were overplayed to the point that even two decades later, my mind will automatically reject both songs when they start instantly playing, especially with Creed. I love Oasis, but crap, I can only listen to Wonderwall so many times before blood starts seeping out of my years (I should see a doctor about that).

    Overplaying a song can kill its momentum quickly, both for the song and the band. This is a problem throughout the history of rock. Even classic radio staples like Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water, and The Eagles Hotel California become predictable and dull tunes simply due to their overexposed nature on the radio. I'm shocked when I hear Highway Star playing as I assume the DJ never heard Deep Purple outside of Smoke On The Water or Woman From Tokyo for the umpteenth time. I was even shocked when I heard Phil Collins In The Air Tonight playing on the classic rock station a few weeks ago. I never heard a Phil Collins song played on the radio (not that I'm complaining). That song tends to be overplayed within my own personal collection though (That is a fault on my part though). However, even with all the songs mentioned above, I still think they're very awesome and beloved tunes and hold up well well after their initial release.

    However, what happens when you hear a song that you're rather indifferent to, and then you hear that song a gazillion times? This was the case when I heard Nickelback. I was rather indifferent to their presence. They made standard, generic corporate rock like all the other songs I was hearing on the rock station at that time. Nothing special. While uninspiring, placid rock isn't going to win me over, that alone is not enough reason to despise Nickelback. Yet, their music became inescapable. It was overplayed to the point of the brain trying to escape out the skull through my ears. Was this punishment from God for some wrong I committed? I wouldn't wish this cruel and horrid punishment even on my enemies!

    Chad Kroeoger can be a very divisive figure in the music industry. He is a person I simultaneously respect and despise at the same time. He is admirable in that he has built a band with an international following. That is a massive accomplishment that deserves recognition, regardless of the personal taste of the music. However, his conforming to rock trends can lead to disappointment for those looking for something new. In a 2001 interview, he stated that "studying every piece, everything sonically, everything lyrically, everything musically, chord structure. I would dissect every single song that I would hear on the radio or every song that had ever done well on a chart and I would say, 'Why did this do well?'". On one hand, this is a skill that is very impressive in itself. He has a great understanding of rock trends and structure of rock songs. Chad also has an in-depth understanding of the music industry as a whole that is fine-tuned to a science. He would actually make a great teacher in the field of music theory. This skill reinforces Nickelback's musical competence. They know how to play their tunes. At the same time though, crafting a hit by simply conforming it to the current trends is not taking risk at all. It's playing safe by providing a friendly radio hit. How You Remind Me became an international hit that one couldn't escape from.

    Now, I know that like any band, they have to have hits in order to justify their existence. This is simply the state of Capitalism. I understand that. But many bands at the forefront of music took great risk by not bulking to trends, choosing instead to craft their own instead. Bands like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Devo, and Nirvana (just to name a few) found great success by setting trends rather than following them.

    I was getting sick of the current rock trends. Rock radio was flooded with Nickelback, along with the likes of Nu-metal. While Linkin Park is awesome, that band inspired several dozen uninspiring clones (Staind comes to mind) that flooded the radio stations during this time. Who knew that one could get that massive radio hit simply by creating hookless songs without structure while screaming incoherently into the microphone. One good thing did come out of Nickelback though. Because of my general disdain for the state of contemporary rock at that time, I've started to explore other music genres that I might as well not know about because of that general dissatisfaction. I don't know why people would look at early to middle 2000's rock with fondness. It was a wasteland.

    Do I think that Nickelback deserved all the hate that they received throughout there existence as a band? No. In an alternate universe where Nickelback wasn't overexposed, I still would have largely been indifferent to their music, but I might have actually taken a strong liking to some of their songs. It is interesting that my biggest complaint about Nickelback really isn't about the band itself, but the system itself that overexposed this music to the point of dread. I will end with this:

Bohemian Rhapsody Anyone?